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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Marandahir" data-source="post: 8036314" data-attributes="member: 6803643">I think a big thing 5e has already been doing for this is making BIPOC more present throughout the artwork of Humans in the rulebooks. In past editions, it very much felt like Human was code word for White Western European, unless the game was set in a different fantasy-cookie-cutter culture like Oriental Adventures, in which case Human was the people from that area. In either case, non-Humans have often taken on the story-roles, if not the caricatures, made of minorities, by virtue of the D&D baseline of Humans as the majority population in most settings. Because the game has been historically designed by and for white dudes from the US and Canada, that's created some problems. These problems are exacerbated when we explore folk like Orcs, who from their roots were laden with the baggage of in part representing what Europeans thought of the Huns and Mongols, alongside other folks that didn't look like their baseline assumption. These baggage are carried into 5e, but the larger focus on providing a diversity of origins for Humans - right there in the PHB - alongside more diverse character images in the core rules, have allowed that problem to be mitigated in human-heavy campaign settings. That said, while Humans remain the most popular "race" in D&D, a key tenet of the game is being able to be something you're not - to imagine yourself, if you'd like, as a wildly different type of person, without feeling like you're lesser than because of it. You MIGHT want to explore the fantasy-racism storylines, but that cannot and should not EVER be the baseline assumption for a game focused on empowering players to have fun via roleplaying.Orcs are a problem precisely because racist baggage is written into their write-ups. The Beholder examples from up chain are a very good contrast. These are a sacred-cow D&D product identity creature, so much so that any usage of them outside of D&D needs WotC's buy-in (see Onward), and unofficial usages of them are quickly modified in sequels or re-releases to be somewhat different (see Evil Eye in Final Fantasy I re-releases, and then the similar-but-different-enough classic series monster "Malboro," which has appeared from Final Fantasy II onward). Beholders are eldritch abominations. These are entities of blue-and-orange morality from a mind-shattered alternate plane of existence. They're intelligent, and thoughtful, and can be uneasy allies in certain circumstances (thinking the Xanathar especially here), but their very presence is anathema to that of Humanoids. They will not hesitate to destroy innocent lives at the turn of a dime, because the don't think or act at all like Humanoids. You can talk to them, even try to reason with them, but they an invasive species that will take over and destroy civilization if not contained or eradicated. The game has room for such entities. The game also has room for such entities coming around to a different mindset - there are good genre examples: the Yeerk Aftran 942 from Animorphs, Ghost Rider from Marvel, and from here in D&D, the Kalashtar of Eberron are essentially this - eldritch nightmares bonded peacefully with humanoids that have decided to fight back against their Quori cousins and their Inspired hosts. These are exceptions to the rule that allow for Demons, Aberrations, Devils, even Fey and Undead (at times) to be alien in mindset and anathema to humanoidity in the same way that a toxic and invasive vine spreading across the landscape would be. Violence is sometimes the answer, even in the context of a game that often glorifies violence well beyond its due. But here we have PC options that as a rule tell stories that are essentially the above. "Wanna play an Orc? Great, but you're going to have to either be fighting against the urge to kill all your companions and innocent people the whole way, and everyone in every town you visit will run away screaming. Still wanna play them? <pause> I didn't think so." Same thing with Dark Elves. Same thing with Goblins. Same thing with Tieflings. Kalashtar get away with it because they're only different from Humans on the inside. These stories do not have to be the domain of PC races. They should not be the assumption."So ban Orcs from PC race lists!" you say. "They were never a PC option to begin with!" And that would be fine, if they weren't carrying simultaneously carrying racist baggage of past portrayals and a host of neutral and positive examples of PC Orcs in other franchises. The nature of the Orc as a Player Character in 2020 is not the same as one in 2008 when WotC decided they didn't even feel comfortable including the Half-Orc in the 4e PH1 (nor a year later, when they decided that Half-Orcs are usually created Saruman-style was preferable to implicit/explicit rape in the PHB2). 5e didn't know what to do with Orcs and Half-orcs in 2014 when 5e came out, and defaulted to "here's Half-Orcs as a PC race, tell the stories as you've been telling them for 40 years, we're not going to give it too much thought this time." This was a mistake. WotC could only afford to not give it too much thought because they and their staff and their target audience at the time came from a place of privilege that didn't want to take an active stance in pushing back against historic and systemic discrimination. The nature of D&D's audience has shifted and thus forced WotC to shift with them.</blockquote>

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